Toyota loses “most favored” status over at CR

For years, Consumer Reports has recommended new Honda and Toyota models even without reliability data on them because cars from these manufacturers had been consistently reliable.

However, this has changed in recent years as Honda’s and Toyota’s have become less consistent and the gap between all makes has narrowed. So to me the practice seemed questionable.

A couple months ago TrueDelta reported that the repair rates for the Camry V6 were running around double the average, easily high enough for a black dot from CR. Recently I began to wonder what impact this might have on CR’s recommendations. Not recommend a Camry? That’s unheard of.

Well, CR’s ratings are out, and the Camry V6 not only got the black dot TrueDelta predicted, but CR has announced that because of this and other problematic Toyotas the manufacturer’s products will no longer be recommended before their reliability is known.

Honda still gets this boost, but it’s just a matter of time before the practice is dropped altogether.